Pro Pickleball Strategies and Training Secrets with Carolina Lopez Episode

In this episode of Dink Tank, chat with Carolina Lopez (via phone), a former professional tennis player turned pickleball pro. With a duper rating of 5.75, Carolina shares her remarkable journey from Argentina to becoming a tennis instructor at Quail Tennis Club in Dayton, Ohio, and now competing professionally in pickleball tournaments across the country.

Episode Highlights:

• Carolina's tennis career, starting at age 7 in Argentina and reaching a world ranking around 500
• Her transition to the United States and 22-year career as a tennis instructor
• How she discovered pickleball just three years ago and quickly rose to professional status
• Training strategies for balancing professional pickleball with her tennis coaching career
• Insights into tournament preparation and partnering strategies for mixed and women's doubles
• Carolina's favorite pickleball shots and techniques that transitioned well from tennis
• How the sport of pickleball is rapidly evolving with more power and speed

Carolina discusses her upcoming competition at the U.S. Open in Dayton, Florida, and shares her thoughts on the future of pickleball as more tennis players make the transition. She offers valuable tips for pickleball players of all levels, emphasizing the importance of drilling, consistency, and strategic gameplay.

Whether you're a tennis player considering pickleball, a recreational pickleball enthusiast, or a competitive player looking to improve your game, Carolina's insights provide a fascinating look into the professional pickleball world.

Connect With Us:

• Follow Carolina Lopez: https://www.instagram.com/firecracker_pickleball/
• Follow Dink Tank where ever you podcast!
• Support our sponsors: Cedar Bay Farm

Keywords:

pickleball, tennis pro, professional pickleball, pickleball strategy, pickleball tournaments, pickleball training, tennis to pickleball transition, US Open pickleball, Dayton Ohio pickleball, Moneyball tournaments

Transcript

Hey friends, welcome to the Dink Tank. In today's episode, I'll be chatting with Carolina Lopez. She's a tennis pro and certified personal trainer at Quail Tennis Club in Dayton, Ohio, but has recently turned pro in pickleball. 

She has a duper rating of 5.75, and this weekend will be competing in the U.S. Open in Dayton, Florida. Welcome to the show. Today I'm talking with Carolina. 

How are you today? Good. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I've got you via my phone. 

I know that you're heading to a tournament today, right? Correct. So let's start there. What tournament are you heading to, and where is that located? I'm going to Kentucky, Owensboro. 

I'm playing at Moneyball. A Moneyball tournament there? Correct. Yeah, just women's.

Very cool. Okay. And you're from the Dayton area. 

I mean, or you live in the Dayton area now, correct? Yes, I live in Dayton, Ohio. I'm originally from Argentina. Argentina. 

Okay. Let's go back. How long have you been living in the United States then? I've been here for around 22 years now.

Okay. Right before we hit record, you said that you've been playing or teaching tennis. Is that correct? Yes, for 22 years.

For 22 years. Okay. So did you kind of grow up playing tennis? Yes. 

I started playing tennis when I was seven until 10 years old, and then they wanted me to play professional. And my parents were like, no way, we can't make that decision for her. So somehow I just quit completely at 10. 

And at 16, I came back when kids are starting to say, I want a lawyer. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a doctor. 

And I was like, I want to play tennis. So, yeah, so I came back at 16. I turned pro at 18.

Oh, wow. Okay. So how many years did you play pro tennis then? I played three years until I was 21.

Okay. I got to be around 500 in the world and decided that I needed to quit. But it's time to go back to college.

Gotcha. What did you go to college for? I did four years in Argentina in advertising. And then I came to the U.S. as a transfer student for a year. 

That was my only eligibility to play tennis. So I just came for the experience. Okay.

I was at Washington Baptist University. Gotcha. Gotcha. 

Okay. When you came here, so did you work in advertising then or like out of college? Yeah, I did. I did a year in Argentina.

Okay. In a great, great worldwide for a year. Yeah. 

So. Gotcha. Gotcha. 

And then, I mean, and then what did you did you transition back into tennis then? Well, I was in that agency and I was just working. Situation in Argentina was not good. Okay.

Economy was not great. And I had a friend in Arkansas and she asked me, what was I doing? And all of a sudden, I'm like, okay, I'll just go. I'll go for a semester and play for the team.

Gotcha. So. Okay.

And then when I was there, I thought, well, things are better here. So I might just apply for jobs everywhere. Okay.

And I got a phone call from my club. That's where I've been since then. Gotcha. 

Gotcha. Okay. And then, so when did you, I guess, start playing pickleball? Can you tell me about how that started? Yeah. 

I was tired of teaching tennis and didn't have any hobbies or anything. Everything was surrounded about work and the schedules. It's brutal. 

It's a split schedule at night. And I needed to have some kind of other hobby and I couldn't find any for years. And when pickleball came in, I was talking to some other friend that I have and was like, well, let's just try it out. 

And we just went and played pickleball. It was summer of three years ago, probably. I've been playing pickleball for three years.

And we started playing in a park and we were playing tennis in a pickleball courts. And then there were a couple of people that saw us play and they kind of redirected us in the direction we needed to play with the best players in Dayton. And that's how we learned how to play pickleball.

I mean, it's not like tennis. So you got your start playing in Dayton. Like how quickly did you go pro then? I mean, did you play for a year or two or did you immediately? So they told me that I needed to just get my feet wet and we started playing, me and my friend, we started playing for four or five, five ball.

And we were winning since we started. So we were meddling every time. And there was a tournament in Cincinnati and we did silver in five ball.

And we also played pro and we were very close to win. And we kind of saw the level of what was the pro level. So I was like, I can do this.

So it kind of went progressively in a year. I played six months and then the next year I was already playing pro. And we didn't get into it within a couple of rounds.

I mean, it was pretty good. I mean, I thought it was pretty good for my age. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool. I mean, a lot of people play.

I mean, I've been playing for a couple of years and I'm nowhere near pro. And I think a lot of people out there, obviously, amateurs or people that have played other sports, they play and play and play. But for you to go within six months and go pro, that's phenomenal.

That's great. Yeah. When you have a background of tennis, it's pretty easy to transition into like, it's the same bracket sports.

Sure. And I thought pickleball is a sport that you are, anybody can play. Anybody can just pick it up and get the ball over the net and have fun.

Yeah, for sure. That's different from tennis. Tennis, you need a lot of lessons and instruction and technique.

And I found myself playing against people that were playing pretty good and not having a great technique on my opinions. So it's quite amazing. Yeah.

I mean, do you think so? There's been some even professional pickleball player or tennis players like Jack Sock, for instance, that has played professional tennis like almost his whole life. And he's totally switched over. I mean, do you think there's, well, I think there's obviously an advantage, but playing that racket sport for years and years and years or playing tennis for years and years and years, it's a pretty, I think, easy transition over to pickleball, right? Yes.

Yes. There's a lot of new players coming out choosing to play pickleball instead of tennis. And the game is changing a little bit.

There's more banking and there's more speed. Everything is changing. Have you noticed some of those changes even in the last couple of years of playing? I mean, is it advancing and changing that quickly? Yeah.

I think when I first started, I had to change to drop the ball, slow it down. And I feel like now the models are stronger and people coming from tennis, it's changing. I don't know where it's going to go, but it's changing.

Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting how much it's changed, I guess, even within the last couple of years.

That's interesting. Let's go back. I asked my son and my daughter to ask me a couple of questions that I could relate to you.

Do you have a favorite shot or a go-to shot that you love to play or, I guess, maybe just something to play to entertain the crowd? I mean, I'm not that flashy. You know, I have a sliced backhand that I like, a sliced dink. But I'm trying to work on my two-handed that I never have.

Gotcha. So that's kind of challenging. But I like to drop the ball.

That's one of my shots, drop the ball. Yeah. I like all of them.

Yeah, yeah. Are you more of a third shot drop or do you slam the third shot and then try to do a fifth shot drop? No, I like to drop right away. I try to go to the kitchen.

That was my main goal. Yeah. I mean, if you can overpower somebody, that's fine.

But I think it's more fun to get a couple goals in. Right. Gotcha.

Gotcha. What does training look like for you on an average week or maybe like on a week, maybe two-part question. Maybe a week leading up to a tournament or a week, like an off week where you don't have a tournament that weekend.

Or I guess, do you have a tournament every weekend? How does that work for you? Oh, no. I mean, to be honest, I don't really have a... I just try to fit it in whenever I can. I'm still teaching tennis and I play pickleball once a week, twice a week if I get lucky.

And I'm trying to stay fit and I stay strong so I don't get injured. Gotcha. With some training, most likely I've just been playing.

I need to do more, but it's just impossible trying to work and be on my feet and trying to play. I need to drill more. Drilling is what is going to get me better and optimize my time.

Right now, I'm just doing what I can. Yeah. No, I got you.

I got you. So to circle back a little bit, what are you doing as far as... Are you doing strength training and cardio? Are you hitting the weights? What are you doing for that? Yeah, I do a little bit of cardio, a little bit of body weights. I'm not... I'm lifting a little bit too.

Yeah, I'm trying to stay strong. When you go and play a lot of tournaments, you sit down, you cool down, you go in. Warming up is very important, stretching, and I am not very good at that.

So I'm trying to get... I'm trying to do better. Trying to do better at that stuff. Yeah, I got you.

As far as drills, you said drilling is very important. What's the top two or three drills that you're like, gosh, if I could do these every day or every other day, what would be your go-to drills? Doing repetitions of shots and patterns. Drop the ball, drive the ball.

Being speed ups, flicks, all kinds. It's consistency, most likely get as many balls as I can without missing. Right.

The muscle memory thing, right? Yeah. The repetition just over and over. Gotcha.

Yeah, repetition. When you go play games, you don't have that rep. The balls are going everywhere.

You might be there and they might not hit you the ball. So it's like you're not really practicing your game. Right.

So back to the game. Do you mostly play women's doubles then or do you try to do mixed? And then do you also do singles? No, I try to do women's and I try to do men's. Most likely at this stage of time.

I went to India and they put me in singles and it's really, it's impossible to play against 20 years old, 49 years old. Singles is just not what I want to do this year. Maybe next year when I get to senior pro, then I can try it out and see how single goes.

But right now, mixed and women's. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Do you have, I don't know, not to put you on the spot, but do you have a favorite or a go-to mixed player that you, or maybe somebody that you play with a lot, a lot more than anybody else? And then the same thing on the women's side. Is there a gal that you play with more than anybody else? And who would they be? Yeah, sure. So for the mixed player, is there a guy that you, I guess, play with more than maybe anybody else? And then also on the women's doubles, is there a female that you play with almost more than anybody else? Do you have just like one partner or do you have like two or three? Yeah.

I mean, I've been trying to stick with a partner for a couple of tournaments to see how it goes, but I don't get time to get a feeling for a couple of tournaments together. With some people, you just click right away. With some other ones, it takes a little bit more time.

Right. But yeah, I've been playing with, in mixed, I've been playing with Zach Taylor a lot, with Eduardo Ibizarri. In women's, I've been playing with Maria Glokoski and a couple of tournaments.

I mean, usually two or three. Cassandra Gerkey, I'm going to play with her. Gotcha.

That's cool. That's cool. Yes.

Can you hear me? Yeah. I think that's better. Are you going through mountains or something? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. You went out a couple of times, but I think earlier you were talking about, you do like a lot of moneyball tournaments now.

Is that like kind of the main thing that you're going after now? So you just try to stop right away, stop thinking, and next point. Always next point, right? Yeah. Always next point, yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes it just goes out of your control. You've got a lead court, you've got, you know, I like a shot from the opponent.

And, you know, you can just control how do you react to that. And that's what I'm trying to work on it. Gotcha.

The question about identifying, maybe identifying your opponent's weakness. I mean, the game is really quick to 11 points, and sometimes I've seen it to 15 points. It's like, how do you identify that like as quickly as possible to know to hit it, like to their backhand or to do the dink or whatever? I mean, like, do you have a method to identify your opponent's weakness? Yeah.

It's different from tennis when you get a warm up and you get to test them out and stuff. Like you said, it's very short. You got to change strategies fast because otherwise you carry on.

And the more you try, you're going to try this, you're going to try that. And all of a sudden, it's 8-0, 8-0 up. Right, right.

So you can't really, you have to, whatever something is not working, then you're just going to do something else. If you're dropping, your drops are too high, then start driving. If the drives are going out, just try something different.

Otherwise, you're just going to keep losing points. But most likely, I focus on my game and then once I see a weakness on the opponent, then we just pick on that. Gotcha, gotcha.

As far as strategy goes, you said, you know, obviously if you see something's not working, you change strategies. Is there like a top three or top four or top five strategies that you're like, like every time you go out and play, whether it's with the mixed doubles or with the ladies doubles, I mean, is there like, you know, hey, this is going to be our, you know, our number one strategy. This is going to be a number two or this is going to be a number three.

Do you have that like lined up or do you just go out and play and say, hey, this isn't working, now let's try this? Usually, like if we know some of the opponents that which we, sometimes usually one of us know I would have played before. Okay. Then we have a, then we will have a player where we will return.

We will make the returns to and, and try to keep them back. So most likely, yeah. Who are we going to return to? And who are we going to drop the ball to or drive the ball to? Gotcha.

Okay. And then, and then you go from there. But you know, usually my game is, is try to get to the kitchen and, and try to play as many balls as I can.

And until I find the opportunity to attack, don't, don't rush. Sometimes rushing too soon. You're making too many mistakes when you don't need to.

You just need to start figuring out, like you said, go to a, to a match and then play as many, as many balls as you can. So you can figure out if you're making a mistake or put it in a way too early, you can't figure. One more question.

Looking forward. I know that you said, you know, you're looking forward to being a senior pro. I mean, is there like, when are you going to turn 50? Like how quickly after that, can you turn senior pro? What else do you have on the horizon? Well, I'm just trying to stay active this year.

And I really don't know what to expect. I'm hoping to be ventilating the senior pro since I'm coming from the regular tour, but I have no clue what's the level and how is that going to work? I have no, everything is unknown right now. Gotcha.

Just taking a day at a time. Is that right? One day at a time. Don't, yeah.

Don't think about the future too much. Right. Right.

Yeah. Well, Hey, I, I really appreciate the time. Thank you so much for, um, for taking my call and being on the show today.

I really appreciate it. You're very welcome. Anytime.

Awesome. Good luck with your tournament, uh, today and, uh, we will catch up soon. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay. Thanks.

Bye. Bye.